Here are some videos that show the tapering of a knife blade 1:06-1:51
notice how he brings the tip to the edge of the anvil as it gets closer to a point this is to allow the hammer the ability to angle the steel without damaging the anvil surface 0:12-0:29

The candle holder was a culmination of various skills learned over the course of 3 days. First, we learned to taper to a square point. We the learned to taper to a round point. We then took those points and learned to bend them in to the hooks seen below. After this we learned to flatten with a visible step. This was incorporated into the hooks. The flatten portion was tapered. After this, we made a fork which I chose not to post since one of the tines on mine broke. We then made this candle holder in order to learn creativity. Originally it was supposed to have a round dish on the top but I suggested making it square instead. This was thought of very highly and several others adopted this style in their design. Being a bladesmith, I could not resist putting a knife of some sort on the piece so I made the feet knives. I twisted the metal into each bend and used a torch to create the spiral. Your critique is welcomed and I hope you like the piece because I had a tremendous amount of fun making it!

I think that if you want to be a a knife maker that is a good philosophy to have. But If you want to be a bladesmith (someone that forges the knife to shape in order to eliminate grinding and polishing) than it is a poor philosophy to have. If good knives are only made from hear treatment a finishing than why bother forging at all, why not make stock removal knives and call it a day. There is a chapter about tribal knives in that book. Read it, it might change your perspective

Keep reading! If you have a question, make sure it hasn't already been asked by using the search feature at the top of the page. I recommend you go to this site Technical Links to give you a head start in further reading. When you do build your forge I recommend forging as much as possible because there is no better teacher than experience and that you make progress steadily. Also, listen to what others have to say on this site because they have a lot more experience than you.

There are only a few blue prints on tong making in the tutorials but I think there needs to be a whole bunch of links to tutorials on how to make tongs. While I just ordered gs flat tongs, I still think that making tongs is a valuable skill to have and will improve your forging prowess. If you can make good looking, functional tongs, what else can you make?